Feedback & Reports

Fishing v slow, but understandable after the amount of cold water that must be in the river. Only one small pike taken on deadbait in the afternoon.

What a lovely stretch of this usually productive little river. Two of use fished really hard in heavy fog and very cold temps, and a chocolate brown river! Didn't really expect to get much, and wasn't dissapointed. Beat xmas tv by a mile though! We'll be back soon, when the conditions are a bit kinder. Again, beautiful stretch.

Blank. This was the day when the weather changed from sub-zero arctic conditions to thaw, resulting in Herefordshire being covered in a clammy fog. It was still necessary to break up the ice to get into position in most of the pools (how does one do that quietly?), but the river, which really seemed in quite nice condition during the morning, began to rise and colour up with snow-melt later. Whatever the reason, I couldn't make contact with grayling in the usual places. One nice experience was an encounter with a very large otter which surfaced in front of me, paws and head out of the water and rudder lashing about behind, regarding me for a few seconds while I fumbled about to find the camera - too late as always - before he submerged again. I can only hope his fishing was going better than mine! I tried the Lugg again at Lyepole a couple of days later, but found it in coloured flood.

3 x grayling 6-12 inches, 8 x out of season trout 8-15 inches, trotting with Avon and centre pin. A rather disappointing day, with the usual graylng lies seemingly occupied by ravenous post-spawning trout, lean and hollow, with ragged lower fins and carrying leeches from where they have been lying on the bottom. Otherwise, the weather was truly horrible, with a freezing and near gale force wind trying to hurry the float downstream, intermittent rain and sleet. Compensations were a red kite circling the river during the morning and buzzards after lunch; a hen salmon was still cutting a redd in Stone Catch.

Very nice looking beat with a good mixture of water. Today was the mildest temperature for some time, so expected to catch a few. I managed 2 10inch grayling on the usual heavy bugs, my friend blanked! Saw the usual cormorants trying to come in to fish, the rivers are having a bad time of it with all the lakes frozen. These birds seem to be multiplying out of control and need to be thinned out before its too late!

First time on this beat but I had some vouchers to use up before the end of the year. Very difficult fishing in the upstream section, looks like the promised tree haircut of early 2010 never happened. Even my 6 foot rod was too long in some places must be hell in the summer. Could not make contact with grayling at all. Water very clear and could see the occasional trout.
Tried the downstream section in the afternoon and found a mini shoal of grayling and caught one of them about a pound in weight on a brown sawyer nymph. No fight, came in like a wet sack. Could not tempt the others and gave up in the gathering dusk. Nice day before the cold weather starts again.

One or two (literally) LDOs early afternoon. Saw just one rising fish which when taken on a small HE emerger proved, as expected, to be a trout and a pretty tatty one at that! Bugged for most of the day but couldn't find a single grayling. However, a skinny 26 inch, four pound salmon was tempted to take the pink bug. Not really what I was looking for though, and scant reward for the day's graft. Water 1 deg C and air 3 deg C at best. Good fun though and certainly beats the hell out of doing the decorating!

Nice conditions to greet us on arrival, temperatures hovering above zero and a river that was somewhat low and crystal clear. Certainly a slow start until we located a shoal of feeding fish where we were able to connect with some fine specimens including a cracker estimated at 2 1/2lb caught by Peter on a small JT nymph. This beat has many inviting pools but as so often at this time of year they are not all occupied by fish and sometimes a lot of fruitless searching is required before finding them. 9 good sized Grayling and a couple of out of season trout between us, certainly worthy of a return in the future.

Excellent days fishing. Slow start but picked up around 1pm with Grayling falling to copper headed size 16 nymphs. I had 4 small grayling and my fishing buddy caught his first ever grayling which was the best fish of the day about 1lb+, fishing czech nymph style. It made the day even better than it already was. Packed up just before dark and will be back to fish this excellent beat again.

River looked to be in good condition, despite the artic scenery! Two brownies @ 10ins on bugs, no sign of the grayling. Good to blow some cobwebs out though. I think I will return to the Wye in spring and stay on the Lugg while the weather is artic. Many thanks.